Weekly alternating etoposide, methotrexate, and actinomycin/vincristine and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy for the treatment of CNS metastases of choriocarcinoma.

Twenty-five patients with CNS metastases of choriocarcinoma were treated with a regimen incorporating etoposide, methotrexate, and actinomycin (EMA) alternating weekly with vincristine and cyclophosphamide (CO). The dose of methotrexate was increased to 1 g/m2. Eighteen patients presented with CNS metastases, or developed them on inappropriate treatment started elsewhere. Following EMA/CO chemotherapy, three patients died within the first 3 weeks, one is alive with active disease, one died with drug resistance, and 13 (72%) patients are surviving disease-free. Two of seven patients (29%) who developed CNS metastases on treatment with EMA/CO or relapsed after EMA/CO are disease-free after additional chemotherapy and surgery. The contribution toward survival of the craniotomy in six of 18 patients treated initially or early with EMA/CO remains unclear, but was crucial to those patients with drug resistance.